Editing Sharia (section)

=== Contemporary usage ===
The word ''sharīʿah'' is used by Arabic-speaking peoples of the [[Middle East]] to designate a prophetic religion in its totality.{{sfn|Calder|Hooker|2007|p=321}} For example, ''sharīʿat Mūsā'' means law or [[Moses|religion of Moses]] and ''sharīʿatu-nā'' can mean "our religion" in reference to any monotheistic faith.{{sfn|Calder|Hooker|2007|p=321}} Within Islamic discourse, ''šarīʿah'' refers to religious regulations governing the lives of Muslims.{{sfn|Calder|Hooker|2007|p=321}} For many Muslims, the word means simply "justice," and they will consider any law that promotes justice and social welfare to conform to Sharia.{{sfn|Vikør|2014}} Sharia is the first of [[Four Doors]] and the lowest level on the path to [[God in Islam|God]] in [[Sufism]] and in branches of Islam that are influenced by Sufism, such as [[Ismailism]] and [[Alawism]]. It is necessary to reach from Sharia to [[Tariqa]], from there to [[Ma'rifa]] and finally to [[haqiqa]]. In each of these gates, there are 10 levels that the [[dervish]] must pass through.<ref name="Sevim">{{cite journal|last=Sevim|first=Erdem|title=Path to the Universal Self in Haji Baktash Walî: Four Doors – Forty Stations|journal=Spiritual Psychology and Counseling|publisher=Association for Spiritual Psychology and Counseling|volume=1|issue=2|date=1 October 2016|issn=2458-9675|doi=10.12738/spc.2016.2.0014|url=https://spiritualpc.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/2016-0014.pdf|access-date=26 February 2024|archive-date=4 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240304055310/https://spiritualpc.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/2016-0014.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

Jan Michiel Otto summarizes the evolutionary stages of understanding by distinguishing four meanings conveyed by the term ''Sharia'' in discourses.{{sfn|Otto|2008|pp=9–10}}
* ''Divine, abstract sharia'': In this sense, Sharia is a rather abstract concept which leaves ample room for various concrete interpretations by humans.
* ''Classical sharia'': This is the body of Islamic rules, principles and cases compiled by religious scholars during the first two centuries after Muhammad, including ''[[Ijtihād]]''<!-- before '[[Ijtihad|the gate of free interpretation' (ijtihad)]] was closed.-->
* ''Historical sharia(s)'': This includes the entire body of all principles, rules, cases and interpretations developed and transmitted throughout a history of more than one thousand years across the entire Muslim world, since the closing of the gate of free interpretation up to the present.
* ''Contemporary sharia(s)'': This contains the full spectrum of principles, rules, cases and interpretations developed and applied at present. Migration, modernisation and new technologies of information and communication have decreased the dominance of the legal schools of classical sharia.

A related term ''{{transliteration|ar|DIN|al-qānūn al-islāmī}}'' ({{lang|ar|{{large|القانون الإسلامي}}}}, Islamic law), which was borrowed from European usage in the late 19th century, is used in the Muslim world to refer to a legal system in the context of a modern state.{{sfn|Calder|Hooker|2007|p=323}}